Western New York, January 2007

Business Expansions

New this Month

Ford Stamping Plant in Hamburg (Erie County)
has hired 90 temporary workers to replace some of the
420 production workers who have opted to take the
severance and retirement packages offered by Ford.
Ford expects to replace the temps in Hamburg with
transfers from other plants that face shutdown, however
if enough transfers don’t make the switch, some of the local temps may wind up in long-term jobs.

A newly formed Buffalo (Erie County) company
has acquired the assets of at struggling local commercial
printer and communications business. Chakra
Communications closed the deal to buy Digicon’s
Creative Printing on December 28th and has hired about
70 new employees, about 50 of them in Buffalo.

HSBC North America Holdings has selected
a farm field in the Town of Cambria (Niagara County) for
its proposed new $139 million data center. The planned
275,000-square-foot center will be one of four technology
hubs for HSBC Holdings Plc’s fast-growing North American
businesses. HSBC expects to create 56 permanent jobs
at the sit, along with about 125 indirect and support jobs.
The project would also require about 350 construction jobs
over two years.

Business Contractions

New this Month

Pfeiffer Foods Inc., a Niagara County salad
dressing maker, is laying off up to 56 workers over the
next few months as work is shifted to plants elsewhere
in the country. The exact number and date of the layoffs
is still unknown, but said they are expected to occur by
March.

The Quality Markets Office and Distribution Center
in Celeron (Chautauqua County) will be closing its doors.
Approximately 50 people will lose their jobs when the
facility closes.